What I have found even more disheartening has been coming to terms with the fact that rollerblading just isn’t as special as I thought it would be. I used to cling to this idea that there was something inherently special about skating, that it attracted a certain kind of person. I believed that rollerblading provided a kind of refuge for individuals and that it attracted people who were different.

To some extent rollerblading has attracted unique individuals willing to go against the grain, but (and I guess this would be true of any group of any significant size) it turns out that only a small percentage of rollerbladers are actually (and truly) individuals; the ones who have the courage to follow their own vision and the intelligence and creativity to identify it in the first place.

As for the others, the ones who fill up the comments and the message boards, it turns out they are pretty much just like everyone else. They show very little interest in reading or researching or growing or learning or ever making any genuine attempt at understanding. They lack either the interest or the capacity to exercise their minds (or both). They are critics who lack the ability to think critically. They know a little bit about a little bit and try to mask their ignorance with indignation.